CcUetial  phones 


OR 


Vokce  from  the  Invisible 


tihmvy  of  Che  theological  ^eminarjp 

PRINCETON  .  NEW  JERSEY 

FROM  THE  LIBRARY  OF 
ROBERT  ELLIOTT  SPEER 

BV  4821  .M37  1900 
Mershon,  S.  L.  1859-1938. 
Celestial  phones 


f       APR    1   1959 

Celestial   PhoireiS^o'6"/.AL  se.'-^ 


or 


Voices  from  the  Invisible 


by  , 

8.   L.  Mershon 


^ 


RAHWAY,  N.  J. 
THE    MERSHON   COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


Copyright,  1900, 

BY 

S.  L.  MERSHON. 


CONTENTS • 

PACE 

Anticipatory     .... 

5 

Prelude       ..... 

.      6 

Interlude          .... 

7 

POSTLUDB      .              .              .              .              . 

•      9 

Within  the  Sheen 

II 

Our  Vanished  Loved  Ones 

•     51 

A  Vision  by  the  Sea   . 

62 

ANTICIPATORY. 

Fellow  Pilgrim  : 

Christmas — Easter — the  Setting  Sun  and  the  Star- 
Ut  Night — speak  to  us  in  the  mystic  melody  of  silent  in- 
tonations, causing  no  sound  vibrations,  yet  transmit- 
ting their  sweet  messages  to  the  innermost  soul,  just  as 
we  are  bound  to  each  other  by  golden  cords  of  Chris- 
tian Brotherhood,  immaterial  and  invisible,  yet 
stronger  than  links  of  steel. 

Please  open  this  book  and  visit  with  me  that  most 
real  place  of  all,  commonly  called  "  the  unreal."  You 
will  see  invisible  forms,  hear  noiseless  footfalls,  feel 
the  touch  of  spirits,  and,  I  trust,  partake  of  heavenly 
calm. 

Yours  in  Him, 

S.  L.  Mershon. 

MONTCLAIR,    N.   J. 


PRELUDE. 

A  SHORT  time  since,  I  took  ship  at  Providence, 
Rhode  Island,  at  evening  tide.  The  steamer  carried 
over  one  thousand  souls. 

As  we  moved  down  the  river  and  out  into  the  deep, 
joy,  animation,  and  music  filled  that  gliding  palace, 
while  pyramids  of  electric  lamps  poured  a  flood  of 
golden  light  upon  us  in  the  cabin. 

I  moved  out  upon  the  deck,  and  all  was  dark. 
Great  angry  billows  rolled  tempestuously  about  us, 
while  rushing  winds  tore  their  way  over  the  hurricane 
deck. 

It  was  a  wild  storm  without. 

It  was  all  peace  and  joy  within. 

Strange  phenomenon!  Why,  amidst  such  a  storm, 
should  there  be  such  a  calm? 

Ah!  something  weird  was  playing  with  the  hearts 
of  men. 

It  held  us  mentally,  as  it  were,  in  a  Haven  of  Calms, 
landlocked  from  a  raging  sea  of  fear. 

There  was  supreme  faith  in  an  invisible  pilot  at  the 
wheel. 

Something  above  reason  saw  something  beyond  the 
range  of  vision,  "  as  seeing  Him  who  is  invisible,"  and 
we  were  at  rest. 


INTERLUDE. 

I  FOUND  my  way  into  a  "  Home  for  the  Deaf  and 
Dumb,"  and  there  I  met  a  man  in  the  middle  of  Ufe 
who  once  was  in  perfect  physical  condition,  but  now 
deaf,  dumb,  and  blind. 

Eyes  sightless. — The  beauties  of  the  world  arc  en- 
tirely shut  out. 

Ears  soundless. — The  melodies,  symphonies,  and 
harmonies  of  love  and  life  are  mute  or  dead  at  that 
golden  highway  to  the  soul. 

Tongue  speechless. — A  pent-up  mind,  starved  of 
love's  messages  and  life's  beauties,  is  not  even  per- 
mitted to  relieve  itself  by  one  outcry  of  despair. 

A  soul  in  solitary  confinement,  enshrined  in  the  hor- 
ror of  perpetual  night  and  locked  in  the  maddening 
hall  of  ceaseless  silence ! 

He  seemed  like  a  strange  and  silent  craft  taking  its 
mysterious  way  in  solitude  over  the  darkened  sea  of 
human  life. 

I  said  to  a  friend,  "  What  a  prisoner ! "' 

My  friend  replied,  "  Ah !  but  he  is  the  happiest  man 
here." 

"  How  do  you  know  ?  "  I  responded.  "  Ask  him,  and 
he  cannot  hear.  He  has  no  voice  to  tell  you,  and  those 
sightless  eyes  are  expressionless." 

"  Wait  a  moment,"  he  replied ;  and  taking  hold  of 
this  strange  being's  hand  he,  by  an  appeal  to  the  sense 


8  INTERLUDE. 

of  touch,  made  in  that  hand  signs  which  I  knew  were 
from  the  language  of  the  deaf  and  dumb. 

My  friend  told  him  that  I  thought  he  must  be  un- 
happy, and  requested  him  to  send  a  message  for  me 
that  would  explain  how  it  was  that  I  was  mistaken. 

As  the  sun  suddenly  bursts  through  a  rift  in  the 
clouds  overhanging  a  dark  and  turbid  sea,  so  the  ra- 
diance of  an  ineffable  light  billowed  the  place  where 
we  stood,  as  there  flashed  back  a  message  translated 
for  me  from  mystic  signals. 

"  I  am  simply  waiting  for  the  time  when  these  eyes 
shall  be  opened  and  I  shall  see  the  King  in  His  glory ; 
these  ears  shall  be  unstopped  and  I  shall  hear  the 
heavenly  music ;  and  this  tongue  shall  be  loosened  and 
I  shall  sing  of  Him  who  hath  redeemed  me  from  my 
sins." 

He  was  dwelling  on  the  border-line  between  two 
worlds,  with  windows  open  toward  Jerusalem ;  and  he 
evidently  saw  something  beyond  the  vale. 


POSTLUDE. 

I  HAD  purchased  a  ticket  at  Cleveland  for  Chicago 
and  was  comfortably  seated  in  a  sleeping  car  when 
suddenly,  as  we  left  the  depot,  a  strange  feeling  of 
alarm  came  over  me.  I  could  not  shake  it  off.  As  the 
conductor  came  through  the  train  I  inquired  of  him 
whether  we  stopped  again  within  or  near  the  city,  as  I 
desired  to  leave  the  train.     He  answered  "  No." 

I  was  deeply  stirred,  for  something  said  clearly,  dis- 
tinctly, and  repeatedly  to  me,  "  You  are  in  great  dan- 

„_  if 

ger. 

Soon,  with  the  train  rushing  along  at  the  rate  of  fifty 

miles  an  hour,  I  fully  realized  that  I  was  helpless — and 

yet  that  warning!     There  was  but  one  refuge: 

"  There  is  a  calm,  a  sure  retreat, 
'Tis  found  beneath  the  Mercy  Seat." 

I  bowed  my  head  in  prayer  and  asked  God  for 
special  protection  from  disaster.  Just  at  that  moment 
there  was  a  crash. 

I  was  sitting  in  Section  Six,  the  upper  compartment 
of  which  was  hinged  exceptionally  low.  The  springs 
on  that  berth  had  broken.  The  shaking  of  the  cars 
loosened  the  catch,  and  the  whole  berth,  loaded  with 
bedding  and  side  boards,  fell  to  the  ends  of  the  guard 
chains  with  terrible  force,  crushing  my  stiff  hat;  but 


lo  POSTLUDE. 

as  my  head  was  bowed  in  prayer  I  escaped  what 
otherwise  must  have  been  a  fatal  blow. 

The  conductor  sprang  to  me  and  exclaimed,  "  I 
thought  you  were  killed."  No ;  a  voice  had  spoken  to 
me. 

Whence  came  it? 


WITHIN   THE   SHEEN. 

Will  you  link  your  imagination  with  mine  and  fly 
with  me  into  the  distant  past  ? — yet  not  very  far. 

I  would  have  you  stand  with  me  on  the  hilltop  where 
the  City  of  Dothan  is  built  on  one  of  nature's  pin- 
nacles, and  from  that  high  point  I  would  have  you 
look  over  a  fertile  valley  robed  in  the  luxurious  verdure 
of  unsmitten  Palestine.  As  the  blackness  of  night  has 
swept  in  over  mountain  and  vale,  and  the  city  has  fallen 
into  slumber,  I  would  have  you  watch  while  the 
chariots  and  horsemen  of  cruel  Syria  of  the  north 
come  silently  as  possible,  drawing  their  iron  net  of  war 
about  the  unconscious  little  city  in  which  abode  Elisha 
the  man  of  God. 

Invading  warriors  polished  their  spears  that  they 
might  the  more  surely  reach  in  vindictive  hate  the  beat- 
ing hearts  of  fellow-men ;  while  the  sword  was  whetted 
that  it  might  cut  the  more  readily  through  nerves  and 
sinews,  to  turn  loving  wives  into  widowhood,  and 
children  into  orphans,  or  worse — yea,  far  w'orse  were 
the  awful  thoughts  that  blazed  in  the  hearts  of  the  war- 
calloused  veterans  waiting  for  the  dawning  day  ere 
they  should  sack  the  little  city. 

With  the  first 

FLASHING  RAYS  OF  LIGHT 

gleaming  over  the  distant  hilltops  the  wild  cry  of  alarm 
bestirs  the  city,  while  its  sons  flock  to  its  walls  in  dis- 


12  WITHIN  THE  SHEEN. 

may.  Among  them  is  a  young  man,  the  servant  of 
the  prophet  EHsha,  who,  having  caught  the  infection 
of  the  panic,  rushes  back  to  his  master  with  the  de- 
spairing cry,  "  Alas,  my  master!     How  shall  we  do?  " 

We  would  listen,  as  calmly  amidst  the  fearful  tu- 
mult the  old  man  replies,  "  Fear  not,  for  they  that 
be  with  us  are  more  than  they  that  be  with  them." 
Then,  falling  on  his  knees,  the  old  man  sweetly  prayed, 
saying,  "  Lord,  I  pray  thee  open  his  eyes  that  he  may 
see."  And  the  Lord  opened  the  eyes  of  the  young 
man,  and  he  saiv — "  And  behold  the  mountain  was 
full  of  horses  and  chariots  of  fire  around  about 
Elisha."  Somehow  the  Syrian  host  vanished  from  the 
young  man's  mind ;  the  terror-stricken  crowd,  surg- 
ing through  the  narrow  streets  of  the  city,  was  for- 
gotten ;  and  the  young  man,  with  a  soul  glance  into  the 
invisible  world,  saw  eternal  verities  and  witnessed 
omnipotent  power  surging  about  God's  servant  in  de- 
fensive phalanxes. 

Prayer-called — Heaven-sent — Love-commanded,  the 
celestial  army  lay  in  the  calm  curtainings  of  the  spirit- 
ual w^orld,  separated  by  the  simple  veiling  of  human 
limitations  from  the  wild  concourse  of  the  terror- 
stricken  crowd. 

I  would  also  have  you  read  with  me  from  that  po- 
etical gem  in  Hebrew  prophecy,  the  book  of  Joel, 
while  we  consider  the  promise  contained  therein,  that 
the  Holy  Spirit  shall  appear  in  all  His  heavenly  light 
in  this  world  of  ours,  when  the  daughters  shall  proph- 
esy, and  the  old  men  shall  dream  dreams,  and  the 
young  men  shall  see  visions. 

Does  it  seem  incredible  to  thee  that  God  should  re- 


WITHIN  THE  SHEEN.  13 

veal  Himself  to  His  children  by  other  means  than  that 
of  the  physical  sense  of  sound  or  sight?  When  in 
that 

SUBLIME   TRANSFIGURATION    HOUR 

a  voice  from  the  invisible  world  cleft  the  clouds,  say- 
ing, "  This  is  my  beloved  Son ;  hear  Him,"  it  was  not 
to  reveal  the  heart  of  God  the  Father  to  Christ,  but  that 
the  Saviour  might  be  magnified  before  men  as  the  in- 
carnation of  divine  life.  Christ  did  not  need  that  at- 
testing voice,  for  He  already  knew  His  oneness  with 
the  Father ;  but  gross,  sensuous,  materialistic  men 
needed  once  for  all  the  revelation  of  the  invisible  to 
human  senses — hence,  that  voice  of  identification  from 
the  clouds. 

The  deepest  revelations  of  love  and  tenderness  made 
to  our  dear  ones  are  manifest  the  most  when  unseen  by 
human  eye  and  unheard  by  human  ear. 

Wilt  thou  deny  to  the  deaf  and  blind  child  the  sweet 
ministries  of  mother  love  because  he  cannot  hear  or 
see?  Or  will  you  permit  them  in  heart  language, 
known  only  to  each  other,  to  develop  stronger,  deeper, 
and  holier  ties  than  we  know  of — made  more  intense 
because  of  these  very  impediments  ?  Knowledge  shuts 
out  the  necessity  for  sight  and  sound. 

"  Sweet  voices  come  to  every  ear, 
Bright  visions  to  all  eyes  appear. 
The  touch  divine  each  soul  may  feel, 
And  God  in  us  Himself  reveal. 
We  see  Him  in  each  beam  of  light, 
His  are  the  voices  of  the  night. 
The  myriad  stars  that  shine  on  high 
Record  His  name  across  the  sky. 


14  WITHIN  THE  SHEEN, 

"  But  brighter  far  the  gems  that  shine 
Upon  the  pages  all  divine; 
The  gems  of  truth  that  gleam  afar 
More  brilliant  than  the  brightest  star. 
To  His  inviting  words  give  heed, 
And  listen  when  He  deigns  to  plead; 
Hear  what  those  heavenly  voices  say, 
And  every  gracious  call  obey." 

Under  the  spell  of  divine  influences  a  man  may  close 
his  eyes,  and  there  will  float  before  his  spiritual  vision 
scenes  of  such  transcendent  splendor  that  the  tongue 
will  fail  and  language  must  break  down  in  all  attempts 
to  reveal  the  scene ;  while  in  the  corridors  of  the  soul 
angelic  voices  will  ring  and  the  language  of  heaven 
will  float  by  melodies  rippling  in  from  celestial  seas  of 
song. 

Has  God  entered  into  thy  life?  Then  let  us  for  a 
moment  stop  straining  our  eyes  for  Him  along  the 
highway  of  the  clouds ;  and  our  gazing  down  the 
paths  through  meadows  and  forests.  Entering  into 
the  heart,  we  will  close  the  door,  pull  down  the  cur- 
tains, stir  the  embers  of  love  on  the  hearthstone  of  the 
affections,  for  He  is  within,  a  resident  of  the  soul. 

Hast  thou  prepared  well  the  furnishings?  When 
love  and  purity  preside  in  thy  heart,  then  thou  wilt 
hang  on  the  walls  of  memory,  that  most  sublime  of  all 
picture  galleries,  only  scenes  of  holy  joy,  while  the  mu- 
sic of  thy  thoughts,  as  they  sound  the  measure  of  thy 
spirit,  will  but  bring  thee  into  closer  communion  with 
Him  who  enters  into  the  guest  chamber  of  thy  heart. 
Guard  well  thy  guest,  keeping  out  all  that  would  tend 
to  mar  His  joy  or  make  unhappy  His  stay. 

The  prophet  Joel  teaches  us  that  the  day  shall  come 


WITHIN  THE  SHEEN.  15 

when  the  servants  of  the  Lord  may  have  in  this  world 
heaven's  atmosphere  without  them  and  heaven's  di- 
mate  within  them,  and,  being  engulfed  thereby,  they 
shall  float  therein  as  a  casket  filled  to  the  brim  floats 
in  the  great  tide  of  the  sea.     As  that 

GLORIOUS   PROMISE  BURSTS  FORTH 

from  the  stereopticon  of  prophecy  I  would  have  you 
catch  its  picture  on  the  screen  of  history,  so  I  would 
add  to  our  vista  that  marvelous  revelation,  when  in  the 
fullness  of  time  there  came  that  baptism  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  upon  the  waiting  Church.  Then  Pentecost 
stood  out  before  the  w'orld:  the  crystalline  throne  to 
which  the  invisible  but  unmistakably  present  Holy 
Spirit  came,  as  He  assumed  the  sway  and  directed  the 
influences  that  were  to  guide  the  Church  of  God  into 
all  truth,  the  child  of  God  into  all  light,  and  the  world 
to  the  foot  of  the  Cross. 

I  would  ask  you  now  to  forget  the  limbs  that  bind  us 
to  the  ground ;  the  stomach  that  seeks  the  orchard,  the 
harvest  field,  and  the  vineyard;  the  lungs  that  make 
their  appeal  to  the  air;  and,  higher  up,  the  eye  that 
claims  the  aesthetical  and  clings  to  the  beautiful  in  na- 
ture; but  flee  with  me  up  into  that  observatory  where 
all  revelation  must  come  by  soul  vision  and  spiritual 
emotion — where,  alone,  thou  art  divorced  from  the 
earth,  earthy,  and  can  take  thine  outlook  upon  the 
great  sea  of  the  Infinite. 

Soon  all  that  is  visible  and  tangible  in  thee  will  sink 
back  into  the  earth,  pass  away  into  the  air,  and  make  its 
journey  to  the  sea ;  excepting  only  that  part  of  thee 
which  is  the  flashing  spark  from  the  infinite  flame  of 


1 6  WITHIN  THE  SHEEN. 

divine  thought;  that  must  pass  again  somewhere  into 
the  invisible  realm. 

Ponder,  then,  with  me  as  to  what  are  these  invisible 
forces  that  are  constantly  surging  against  us.  How 
can  we  let  into  our  souls  the  blessed  emotions  that  are 
sweeping  about  us,  and  how  can  we  link  thereto  the 
holy  emotions  that  are  playing  within  us? 

Two  worlds  have  floated  in  together,  and  lie  broad- 
side to  broadside.  How  are  the  bridges  of  thought  to 
be  thrown  across?  Are  they  ever  thrown  across,  car- 
rying messengers  from  each  to  the  other? 

The  stars,  hundreds  of  millions  of  miles  away,  speak 
to  us  without  a  voice.  Men  who  disappeared  a  thou- 
sand years  ago  still  help  to  shape  the  thought  of  the 
world.  They  shot  into  the  world,  ran  along  on  its  sur- 
face for  threescore  years  and  ten,  and  then  glanced  off 
into  the  Invisible ;  but,  while  gone,  are  in  fact  to-day 
molding  the  minds  of  men.  The  Almighty  God,  in- 
finite, eternal,  the  Creator  of  all  things,  is  by  some  sup- 
posed to  be  imprisoned  in  a  celestial  city,  walled  in  by 
His  own  hands.  Having  completed  the  superb  work- 
manship of  a  world  that  He  has  been  building  up 
through  all  the  ages,  has  He  at  last  left  man — His 
highest  creation — alone  and  helpless  on  top  of  this 
marvelous  structure,  beyond  the  reach  of  his  Mas- 
ter's voice  and  with  no  visible  escape  ?  When  man  at 
last  drops  off Where?  where?  or  nowhere? 

Can  anyone  sincerely  ask  the  question,  "  Is  there  a 
God  in  the  world  ?  "  This  is  a  question  easily  pro- 
pounded and  quickly  answered.  Come  with  me  to 
Newport,  and  let  us  wander  into  that  old  and  tenant- 
less  tower.     If  I  should  exclaim,  "  This  structure  is 


WITHIN  THE  SHEEN.  17 

a  freak  of  nature,  and  was  never  built  by  human 
hands  \ "  you  would  challeng-e  the  rash  statement  and 
then  demonstrate  that  from  the  general  plan  of  the  edi- 
fice and  its  adaptation  to  man's  requirements  it  must 
have  been  designed  by  an  intelligent  mind  and  con- 
structed by  human  hands  for  human  occupation.  I 
transcribe  to  my  tourist  notebook  your  argument,  and 
simply  change  the  word  "  tower  "  to  "  world,"  and  the 
words  "  architect  and  builder  "  to  "  God,"  and  rest  my 
case  on  your  own  logic  as  to  whether  there  is  a  God  in 
this  world. 

In  that  similitude  we  but  widen  out  the  thought  un- 
der the  same  infallible  rules  of  proof. 

A  line  that  runs  straight  for  the  distance  of  a  mile, 
when  carried  forward  will  be  straight  to  the  realms  be- 
yond the  farthest  star. 

Pantheism  exalts  the  design.  Christianity  worships 
the  designer  back  and  above  the  design. 

Pantheism  glorifies  the  house.  Christianity  crowns 
the  architect  and  builder  of  the  house. 

The  house  in  which  you  live  is  but  an  imperfect  rep- 
resentation of  a  luminous  picture  in  the  mind  of  your 
architect.  It  is  but  a  soul  vision  caught  in  wood  and 
mortar.  No  chemist  by  analyzing  it,  and  no  scientist 
by  rending  it  apart,  can  discover  the  thought  which 
permeated  it  or  the  mind  that  inspired  it. 

The  architect  is  in  the  building,  and  yet  he  is  not  of 
the  building. 

The  world  is  the  matchless  expression  of  matchless 
thought — the  mighty  design  of  the  Almighty  Designer. 

The  logic  of  the  house  is  but  the  logic  of  nature. 

^'  The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God  and  the 


i8  WITHIN  THE  SHEEN. 

firmament  showeth  His  handiwork.  Day  unto  day 
uttereth  speech  and  night  unto  night  showeth  forth 
knowledge.  There  is  no  speech  nor  language  where 
their  voice  is  not  heard." 

Let  us  take  the  wings  of  the  morning,  and  fly  up,  up, 
and  see  if  we  cannot  distill  from  the  clouds  sweet 
whispers  of  love;  from  the  sun's  rays  melodies  rich 
with  divine  heart-throbs  as  they  vibrate,  having  been 
touched  for  us  by  the  unseen  fingers  of  God.  I  believe 
that  back  of  the  rustling  of  the  leaves  of  the  trees  of 
the  forest,  back  of  the  stars  singing  together,  back  of  all 
nature's  melodies,  we  find  the  Master  Mind  of  all  the 
universe  sitting  in  the  great  dome  of  heaven,  from 
whose  chimes  ring  out  nature's  harmonies.  Let  us 
climb  up  the  winding  stairs  of  faith,  and  we,  the  chil- 
dren of  the  Musician,  standing  at  His  side,  will  see 
Him  bend  over  to  us,  and  will  hear  Him  speak  the  sweet 
words  of  father  love  that  are  better,  grander,  and  holier 
sounds  than  those  which  with  rush  and  roar  sweep 
through  nature's  vaulted  temple,  though  the  former  are 
heard  only  by  His  children  standing  at  His  side.  God 
of  the  universe,  God  of  father,  mother — our  God — 
speak  this  hour  to  us  through  Thy  Holy  Spirit  for  the 
Christ's  sake. 

Sometimes  as  we  contemplate  the  vastness  of  nature 
and  the  overwhelming  power  of  Almighty  God,  the 
heart  cries  out,  "  Does  He  care  for  poor  insignificant 
me  ?  Am  I  not  lost  track  of  by  Him  in  the  vast  surg- 
ing tide  and  ceaseless  flow  of  humanity  ?  "  So  I  inaud- 
ibly  spoke  in  solitude  amidst  the  shadows  of  a  mighty 
forest,  when  a  little  violet,  nestling  under  a  sheltering 
rock,  replied  to  me,  and  said  to  my  soul :  "  The  great 


WITHIN  THE  SHEEN.  19 

sun  cares  for  lue.  I  draw  from  it  my  life,  my  beauty, 
and  my  fragrance.  There  is  but  one  sun  to  me,  and  it 
acts  as  if  I  am  the  only  violet ;  for  it  fills  and  satisfies 
my  whole  nature.  One  supreme  joy,  however,  is  mine, 
that  while  not  robbing  me  in  the  least,  there  is  enough 
of  my  sun  for  all  the  other  violets,  and  so  it  and  I  live, 
but  not  I,  for  it  liveth  in  me." 

Thus  I  discovered  that  the  mission  of  the  great  sun 
in  the  physical  world  is  but  a  partial  expression  of  the 
mission  of  Jesus  the  Christ  in  the  spiritual  world.  It 
redeems  out  of  darkness  and  death  and  exalts  to  life 
and  light. 

"  God  of  the  granite  and  the  rose. 

Soul  of  the  sparrow  and  the  bee, 
The  mighty  tide  of  being  flows, 

Through  all  Thy  creatures,  ouf/rom  Thee. 
It  leaps  to  life  in  grass  and  flowers; 

Through  every  grade  of  being  runs. 
Till  from  creation's  radiant  towers 

Its  glory  streams  in  stars  and  suns. 

"  God  of  the  granite  and  the  rose, 

Soul  of  the  sparrow  and  the  bee, 
The  mighty  tide  of  being  flows, 

Through  all  Thy  creatures,  back  to  Thee. 
Thus  round  and  round  the  circle  runs, 

An  endless  sea  without  a  shore, 
Till  men  and  angels,  stars  and  suns, 

Unite  to  praise  Thee  evermore," 

So  I  find  all  nature  spiritualized.  As  the  sun  in  the 
midst  of  the  great  solar  system,  with  all  its  infinite 
number  of  planetary  and  meteoric  bodies  charged  with 
a  natural  trend  toward  "  outer  darkness,"  is  gradually 
drawing  and  drawing  them  to  itself,  so  the  Sun  of 


20  WITHIN  THE  SHEEN. 

Righteousness  stands  in  the  midst  of  life,  with  all  His 
magnetic  power  gradually  but  surely  drawing  the  natu- 
rally wayward  sons  of  men  to  Himself.  The  two  con- 
tending forces  in  the  physical  world  are  typical  of  the 
two  mightier  contending  forces  in  the  spiritual  world. 

The  soul  of  man  is  too  large  for  its  earthly  taber- 
nacle of  clay  called  the  human  body;  hence,  the  latter 
falls  into  dissolution  in  the  short  space  of  threescore 
years  and  ten,  while  the  immortal  life  within  moves  on 
in  co-existence  with  the  eternal  Creator  of  all  things. 

The  mind  of  man  is  too  capacious  of  vision  to  be 
alone  dependent  upon  the  optic  nerves  for  sight,  and 
too  fond  of  music  and  converse  to  be  limited  by  the 
auricular  channels  to  the  mind.  So  we  find  the  blind 
seeing  and  the  deaf  hearing  through  strange  channels 
and  along  mysterious  highways. 

Man  sees  visions  beyond  the  vista  of  physical  sight. 

He  hears  amidst  the  sacred  silences  of  his  soul's 
temple,  while  silent  stars  speak  to  him  of  God,  and  the 
rocks  and  flowers  voice  to  him  the  messages  of  infinite 
power  and  love. 

Man's  inner  nature  hungers  so  keenly  in  the  hours  of 
his  loftiest  aspirations  that  physical  appetite  is  forgot- 
ten while  the  soul  craves  sympathy  and  feeds  upon  love 
and  hope. 

He  feels  the  touch  of  kindred  spirits  without  calling 
into  play  nerves  of  sensation. 

So  divine-like  is  man  in  the  midst  of  the  sacred  bow- 
ers of  his  own  Eden  home  that  he  calls  into  existence 
immortal  life,  and  the  children  of  his  love  live  on  for- 
ever. 

Such  human  life  is  awfully  grand! 


WITHIN  THE  SHEEN.  21 

In  length  it  is  henceforth  co-existent  with  God. 

In  height  it  reaches  up  to  the  foot  of  the  eternal 
throne,  while  in  depth  who  can  sound  it  with  the  line 
of  love  or  fathom  it  with  the  plummet  of  black  despair? 

Is  not  man's  nature  too  exalted  to  be  satisfied  with 
sin? 

Should  not  the  soul  of  every  rational  being  abhor 
sin? 

The  protest  of  truth  against  sin  is  like  the  protest  of 
the  Muses  against  malignant  discords  in  Sacred  Ora- 
torios. 

The  protest  of  virtue  against  vice  is  like  the  protest 
of  the  spirit  of  music  against  the  ruthless  barbarism 
that  would  seize  the  harp  strings  while  they  are  vibrat- 
ing with  the  soul's  most  sacred  emotions  and  would 
convert  them  into  snares  for  rats,  lizards,  and  serpents. 

How  can  it  be  possible  for  God  to  arrange,  classify, 
and  determine  the  moral  accountability  of  each  indi- 
vidual in  this  mighty  army  of  humanity  which  has 
passed,  is  passing,  and  will  pass  through  the  ages  out 
of  this  world  into  eternity?  So  much  of  heredity,  en- 
vironment, physical  and  mental  weakness  having 
operated  to  warp  and  twist  the  moral  natures,  hovr  can 
moral  responsibility  be  fixed? 

I  have  learned  a  great  lesson  from  the  sea,  which 
explains  how  the  greatest  physical  law  in  nature — 
gravitation — illustrates  what  may  be  the  working  of 
the  wonderful  law  of  final  judgment. 

Far  out  where  the  ocean  is  fathomless,  like  the  sea 
of  eternity,  to  human  thinking,  from  all  directions 
there  flows  in  from  time  to  time  the  debris  of  the 
world.     All  manner  of  materials,  of  varying  shapes, 


22  WITHIN  THE  SHEEN. 

sizes,  and  weights,  perchance  pass  together  out  and 
down  into  the  deep,  but  each  to  its  proper  level  by  that 
law  of  gravitation  which  by  divine  decree  passes  un- 
erring judgment  on  the  specific  gravity  of  all. 

Is  it  more  strange  that  the  Creator  of  all  should  have 
and  enforce  a  law  of  moral  accountability  that  would 
give  to  the  highest  virtues  the  greatest  rewards  and  to 
the  deepest  vices  the  deepest  condemnation? 

It  seems  to  me  that  as  I  look  through  the  open  doors 
of  the  vegetable  and  animal  worlds  I  behold  this  same 
awful  moral  conflict  raging  amidst  the  trees  of  the 
forest,  the  fruits  of  the  orchard,  and  the  flowers  of  the 
garden.  At  the  same  time  the  animal  world,  strug- 
gling in  a  pandemonium  of  horrors,  appears  to  reveal 
the  fact  that  all  nature  does  verily  groan  and  travail 
in  pain  until  now. 

There  are  two  forces  in  nature — the  Benevolent  and 
the  Malevolent. 

A  power  in  nature  plants  a  tree  for  luscious  fruitage ; 
thereupon  a  force  in  nature  sends  the  insects  to  suck 
its  life,  blight  its  flowers,  and  sting  its  fruit. 

The  desire  of  certain  dogs  to  kill  birds  of  heavenly 
plumage  and  angelic  song  originated  not  in  the  ten- 
der heart  of  God. 

The  disposition  of  the  cat,  when  hunger  is  satisfied, 
to  amuse  itself  with  the  dying  agonies  of  a  mouse, 
rending  it  limb  from  limb,  is  not  of  Him  who  watch- 
eth  the  sparrow  when  it  falls. 

So  pondering,  I  discover  that  while  hateful  treat- 
ment develops  viciousness  in  the  horse  and  dog,  and 
while  neglect  destroys  the  orchard  and  vineyard,  lov- 
ing care  brings  the  spirit  of  gentleness  to  the  brute  and 


WITHIN  THE  SHEEN.  23 

self-sacrificing-  labor  produces  the  highest  vintage.  So 
love  redeems  all  nature  and  becomes  the  shield  against 
the  forces  that  make  for  evil  and  death,  and  lifts  to  a 
higher  and  better  life  the  recipients  of  its  care. 

A  poorly  clad,  poverty-stricken,  orphaned  appren- 
tice, day  after  day,  on  his  way  to  work,  watched  the  un- 
equal struggle  of  certain  wild  flowers  for  existence 
against  choking  weeds  and  crowding  brambles. 

Learning  to  love  them,  through  sympathy  he  lifted 
the  plants,  one  by  one,  from  their  dreary  places  and 
replanted  them  in  his  little  garden  under  the  shelter 
of  a  great  stone  fence,  which  protected  them  from  the 
blasts  of  the  north  wind,  while  they  drank  in  the  life- 
giving  rays  of  the  sun. 

When  the  heavens  withheld  for  a  space  their  dews, 
he  watered  them  from  the  nearby  spring,  while  with 
tender  hands  he  nourished  their  roots  and  guarded 
their  beds. 

Month  by  month  and  year  by  year  love's  nurture 
developed  richer  bloom  and  lovelier  flowers,  until  the 
gardener,  now  an  old  man,  standing  in  the  midst  of  his 
floral  bowsers  and  leaning  on  his  staff,  said,  "  Lo,  I 
have  redeemed  these  wild  flowers  to  their  perfection 
by  love  and  have  crucified  myself  to  the  outside  world 
all  the  days  of  my  life  that  I  might  cause  them  to  at- 
tain to  and  express  in  their  lives  the  Master's  true  de- 
sign, which  He  implanted  in  their  natures.  I  wonder 
if  I  am  not  a  Christ  to  these  flowers,  having  given  my 
life  to  them  because  of  love  that  they  might  be  re- 
deemed to  God's  great  plan  ?  "  And  so  he  gave  them 
back  to  God  in  all  their  beauty,  for  he  believed  not  that 
heresy  that  any  one  of  them 


24  WITHIN  THE  SHEEN. 

"  Is  born  to  blush  unseen 
And  waste  its  sweetness  on  the  desert  air," 

for  they  were  all  in  God's  great  garden,  and  He  who 
created  them  and  who  is  the  lover  of  the  lowly,  and 
ever  in  his  world,  witnessed  here  a  type  of  Geth- 
semane  and  Calvary  in  a  little  floral  world  which  had 
been  redeemed  by  vicarious  love. 

The  little  girl  playing  in  the  wild  woods  found  the 
hidden  little  offspring  of  the  wild  cat.  Taking  the 
group  of  kittens  to  her  home,  she  brooded  over  them 
with  sweet  childish  love  which  they  at  times  resented, 
but  more  often  reciprocated.  Later  in  life  she,  then 
a  matron,  loved  and  petted  the  descendants  of  her  first 
charge,  while  in  the  evening-tide  of  her  aged  life, 
sitting  in  the  old  armchair,  with  the  family  pet  of  a 
much  later  generation  mewing  by  the  fireside,  she 
thought,  "  I  wonder  if  I  too  have  not  redeemed  this 
generation  by  love,  and  have  I  not  put  back  into  that 
nature  some  of  the  spirit  of  God — see  how  this  kitten 
loves  me." 

If  we  can  charge  inanimate  nature  with  the  forces 
of  evil,  how  reasonable  it  is  to  believe  that  we  can  im- 
plant in  animate  nature  the  spirit  of  good ! 

Surely  in  the  day  of  this  world's  final  glory  we  shall 
witness  the  fulfillment  of  the  prophet's  vision  in  which 
the  lambs  rested  with  the  ravenous  beasts,  then  re- 
deemed. The  trees  of  the  fields  will  then  clap  their 
hands  amidst  blossoming  bowers,  while  parched  des- 
erts will  burst  forth  in  floral  bloom,  for  all  creation, 
animal,  vegetable,  and  mineral,  has  groaned  and 
travailed  in  pain   for  that  hour  of  the   New   Birth. 


WITHIN  THE  SHEEN.  25 

Surely  a  New  Earth  will  be  the  offspring  of  vicarious 
and  redemptive  love. 

In  that  day  the  Master  will  see  of  the  travail  of  His 
soul  and  will  be  satisfied. 

The  Creator  of  all  things  gave  iron  to  man  as  one 
of  his  blessings.  Iron  is  charged  with  God's  love, 
and  yet  the  assassin  forges  from  it  the  stiletto.  If 
righteousness  and  evil  so  contend  in  inanimate  ob- 
jects as  well  as  in  the  highest  order  of  creation,  why 
may  we  not  see  the  same  fearful  conflict  everywhere, 
including,  as  a  participant,  the  serpent  in  the  Garden 
of  Eden? 

A  few  facts  are  demonstrated  in  this  connection. 

There  is  a  power  in  the  animal  and  vegetable  world 
that  makes  for  life. 

There  is  a  force  in  the  animal  and  vegetable  world 
that  makes  for  death. 

The  conflict  between  them  is  incessant. 

Love  has  redeeming  and  exalting  power  wherever 
applied. 

All  animate  creation  seeks  eternal  life — either 
through  rootlet  or  seedlet. 

While  the  vegetable  and  animal  kingdoms,  amenable 
to  this  universal  law  that  makes  for  everlasting  life, 
are  satisfied  through  offspring,  this  is  not  so  of  the 
soul  that  is  born  of  God. 

That  soul  is  a  divine  entity. 

No  inanimate  matter  has  ever  been  annihilated. 
There  is  no  such  thing  as  annihilation  in  the  universe 
of  God. 

Scientifically,   disappearance   never  means   destruc- 


26  WITHIN  THE  SHEEN. 

tion,  and,  logically,  ignorance  of  our  own  destiny  can 
never  imply  the  destruction  of  the  soul. 

Truth  is  what  we  seek,  and  truth  we  must  discover! 
The  most  inscrutable  mystery  in  all  creation  is  man's 
terrible  responsibility  to  know  the  truth. 

Nature  knows  no  pardon  for  ignorance  and  no  leni- 
ency for  error.  Ignorance  of  too  high  pressure  in  a 
steam  boiler  never  saved  an  engineer  from  an  explo- 
sion. Error  in  under-calculating  the  force  of  the  wind 
never  saved  a  sailor  from  death. 

Our  cemeteries,  with  many  of  our  loved  ones,  sent 
there  to  untimely  graves,  are  silent  witnesses  to  the 
inaccuracy  of  human  thought  and  errancy  in  human 
calculations. 

In  the  moral  realm  the  same  fearful  responsibility 
seems  to  attach  itself  to  error  in  thought. 

The  sea  of  spiritual  life  on  this  planet  is  crowded 
with  moral  wrecks  stranded  or  engulfed  because  of 
honestly  intended  but  ignorant  moral  instruction  at 
home,  in  the  school,  and  in  the  church. 

If  ignorance  is  a  doorway  through  which  death 
stalks  and  seizes  our  children;  if  error  in  instruction 
does  damn  the  morals  of  our  sons  and  daughters, 
what  may  be  the  fate  of  our  own  immortal  existence 
by  the  application  of  erroneous  thought  to  that  most 
sacred  of  all  trusts  committed  to  our  thinking — 

OUR   SPIRITUAL   DESTINY? 

In  the  moral  realm  ignorance  stands  for  danger,  and 
error  is  synonymous  with  death ! 

Let  us,  then,  with  supreme  fidelity  to  the  cause  of 
truth,  and  with  minds  appreciative  of  such  a  stupen- 


WITHIN  THE  SHEEN.  27 

dous  responsibility,  move  further  along  the  line  of  in- 
quiry which  is  so  tragically  important  to  universal 
man. 

The  world  concedes  the  presence  of  a  supreme  mind 
in  this  great  universe,  yet  there  are  many  who  seem 
to  think  that  it  is  irrational  to  believe  that  the  human 
mind  can  be  put  in  such  accord  with  the  divine  mind 
that  the  latter  can  actually  control  and  direct  the  for- 
mer. 

These  very  ones  will  admit  that  the  desire  and  in- 
fluence of  such  a  supreme  mind  must  be  and  are  toward 
the  highest  and  best  good,  and  yet  they  deny  the  pos- 
sibility of  divine  control  over  human  minds.  The 
teaching  of  our  blessed  Lord  was  that  by  the  submis- 
sion of  the  human  will  to  the  divine  there  would  come 
into  the  life  of  man  the  overruling  mind  of  God. 

The  objectors  to  this  proposition  have  been  present 
in  audiences  when  some  operator  possessing  great 
power  of  will  and  thought  has,  through  voluntary  sub- 
mission of  the  will  of  his  subject,  caused  the  latter  to 
think  his  thoughts  and  perform  his  deeds. 

Why,  then,  does  it  seem  to  anyone  incredible  that  the 
Supreme  Mind  of  all  the  universe  should  influence  the 
consenting  mind,  but  lovingly  permit  it  to  exercise 
freedom  of  will  should  it  desire  to  release  itself  even 
from  the  control  of  infinite  love? 

If  we  call  upon  Him  who  is  invisible,  can  He  answer 
by  active  interposition  in  human  affairs? 

One  barrier — to  many  minds,  an  insurmountable  one 
— seems  to  intervene.  Can  He  set  aside  the  "  laws  of 
nature"  in  response  to  the  pleading  of  His  children? 
Thought  rules  matter,  untrammeled,  irresistible;  and 


28  WITHIN  THE  SHEEN. 

thought  is  moved  and  swayed  by  love.  Of  this,  we  are 
daily  witnesses. 

Sitting-  in  my  library,  with  one  of  my  children  play- 
ing on  the  floor,  I  am  suddenly  startled  by  my  child's 
piercing  cry  for  protection,  as  a  book  case  comes 
"  toppling  over." 

Terrible  situation !  All  the  "  inexorable  laws  "  of 
materialistic  nature  are  at  work  to  make  sure  the  de- 
struction of  that  child  before  my  very  eyes. 

The  book  case  is  falling  in  strict  accord  with  the 
"  laws  of  gravitation."  I  am  held  fast  by  "  the  force 
of  inertia,  which  causes  all  matter  at  rest  to  remain  at 
rest."  Can  I  work  a  miracle  and  set  aside  nature's 
laws  in  answer  to  that  child's  cry  to  my  father  heart? 

SOMETHING   ACTS  ! 

What  is  it?  Matter?  Ah,  no!  a  force  called  mind 
acts  on  matter.  It  has  no  fulcrum  and  no  leverage. 
It  ignores  all  natural  rules  of  attraction  and  repulsion. 
No  law  in  matter  applies  to  it,  but  by  behest  of  will 
it  causes  a  human  arm  of  many  pounds'  weight  to 
move.  That  immaterial,  invisible,  and  indefinable 
something  called  mind  sways  matter  in  the  human 
arm,  intercepts  the  laws  of  gravitation,  nullifies  the 
power  of  inertia,  all  in  answer  to  a  child's  prayer  to 
a  human  father's  heart. 

Mind  caused  that  motion — mind  governed  that  mo- 
tion, and  the  laws  of  nature  became  simply  the  obedi- 
ent slaves  to  its  will.  Mind  in  the  human  body  by  its 
will-power  controls  the  laws  of  its  limited  physical  be- 
ing, just  as  the  same  natural  laws  in  wider  cycles  are 
governed  and  controlled  by  an  infinite  mind — even  the 


WITHIN  THE  SHEEN.  29 

mind  of  God.  Surely  the  servant  is  not  greater  than 
his  Lord. 

Man,  however,  turned  his  back  on  God  at  the  dawn 
of  human  history,  and  then  was  witnessed  the  carnival 
of  sin  from  which  the  human  race  has  been  strugghng 
to  find  its  way  back. 

When  first  amidst  the  wealth  of  primeval  forests  and 
floral  beauty  man  appeared  and  became  the  abode  of 
the  first  human  thought,  that  being  must  have  been 
sinless.  A  moment,  a  period  of  time,  existed  in  that 
first  life  before  the  spirit  of  rebellion  to  moral  law 
seized  upon  him.  Perchance  he  poised  on  that  sub- 
lime height  for  but  a  single  moment,  but  in  that  poise 

PURITY  WAS     REGNANT. 

Then  came  "  the  fall."  Some  say  that  there  was 
no  "fall,"  but  that  there  was  an  evolutionary  rise.  We 
accept  that  dictum.  Thus  by  sin  man  w^as  lifted  from 
the  Elysian  fields  of  purity  where  he  had  reveled  in 
the  sweet  smiles  of  his  soul's  approval.  He  was  by 
sin  exalted  from  the  benignant  atmosphere  of  heavenly 
perfection  to  the  bleak  mountain  heights  where  the 
rough  crags  and  rugged  caverns  of  abutting  and  de- 
coying sin  have  e'er  since  in  delusive  mockery  mad- 
dened the  soul.  They  have  benumbed  by  their  sear- 
ing scars  the  delicate  sensibilities  of  his  original  spirit- 
ual life. 

That  sweet  angel.  Heredity,  wdiose  blissful  mission 
it  is  to  gather  up  all  the  blessed  fruit  germs  of  each 
generation  and  strew  them  as  seed  in  the  harvest  fields 
of    oncoming    multitudes,    has    found    her    plantings 


30  WITHIN  THE  SHEEN. 

mixed    with    the   tares    of   a    poisoned    and    polhited 
growth. 

Thus  conscience  became  ahiiost  mute;  thought  took 
on  its  selfish  bias ;  superstition  enveloped  the  race  and 
the  black  horrors  oi  antediluvian  and  subsequent  ages 
swept  in  upon  a  world.  From  this  moral  debris  man 
cried  out  wildly  for  help.  The  "  soul  of  nature  "  had 
sent  to  man  the  cooling  sea  breezes,  and  he  in  turn 
worshiped 

THE   LEVIATHANS   OF   THE   DEEP, 

The  "  world's  life  "  had  given  to  man  the  beasts  of 
the  fields  to  bear  his  burdens  and  to  satisfy  his  hunger. 
Appeasing  the  latter  for  the  moment,  the  cravings  of 
man's  spiritual  nature  bent  his  knees  in  worship  to  the 
brutes.  So  while  the  intelligence,  love,  and  tender- 
ness of  "  a  great  predominating  unity  in  nature " 
spoke  to  humanity  through  forests,  flowers,  and  spar- 
kling streams,  a  great  cry  of  despair  went  up  from  the 
universal  man  who  had  been  blinded  and  depraved  by 
sin. 

Out  from  amidst  the  smoke  of  human  sacrifices  the 
gurgling  waters  of  the  bloody  Ganges  and  a  thousand 
horrible  forms  of  insane  worship,  a  great  weird  and 
agonized  chorus  of  misery  flooded  the  heavens.  God 
knew  that  the  human  race,  cursed  by  its  own  sins, 
could  find  no  story  of  redemption  in  nature,  and  was 
sinking  into  the  bottomless  abyss  of  certain  death.  A 
new  voice  to  speak  in  nature  became  necessary.  The 
occasion  demanded  a  new  voice  of  righteousness, 
heralding  some  plan  of  salvation.  A  new  element  had 
come  into  this  world — the  element  of  sin.     If  man  had 


WITHIN  THE  SHEEN.  31 

not  sinned,  the  revelation  of  God  in  nature  would  have 
been  complete  for  him. 

He  who  looks  for  God  in  nature  will  find  in  nature 
all  the  attributes  of  God  as  displayed  for  man  before 
human  sin  entered  this  world. 

Human  sin  was  not  in  the  world  at  the  creation, 
only  divine  love  for  oncoming  man,  so  the  works  of 
early  creation — the  rocks,  fields,  and  forests — speak  to 
us  of  all  the  divine  attributes,  excepting  redemption 
from  sin. 

After  physical  creation  sin  entered  the  moral  realm 
of  this  planet.  Then  its  divine  antidote  of  necessity 
appeared  in  the  spiritual  life  of  Jesus  the  Christ. 
Thus  we  have 

A  DUAL  MESSAGE  FROM  GOD, 

First :  God  in  nature  as  he  spoke  to  all  man's  needs 
before  sin  came  into  the  human  heart.  Added  to  this 
we  now  have, 

Second :  God  in  Jesus  Christ  as  he  speaks  to  all  the 
spiritual  needs  of  sinful  man. 

Nature  and  Jesus  the  Christ  are  an  old  and  a  new 
testament,  containing  the  complete  romance  of  divine 
love  in  creation  and  in  redemption. 

The  story  of  Christ  had  to  be  written  that  the 
world  might  know  the  matchless  redemptive  love  of 
God,  and  so  we  venerate  and  love  God's  Holy  Book, 
not  as  a  fetich,  but  as  a  loving  child  folds  to  the  heart 
the  letter  penned  by  the  dying  mother  before  passing 
into  glory.  Yea,  more,  for  we  catch  from  its  pages 
the  only  message  of  eternal  hope  for  our  own  hearts, 
the  sweet  words  of  redemption  from  sin,  and  salva- 


32  WITHIN  THE  SHEEN. 

tion  to  the  immortal  life.  We  exalt  that  Book  as  God's 
second  best  gift  to  man,  for  it  tells  a  sweeter  story  than 
the  winds  speak  or  the  rocks  whisper.  It  is  the  story 
of  the  Messiah — that  Messiah,  God's  gift  of  Himself 
for  a  lost  world. 

Most  wondrously  He  grew.  Too  unique  and  holy 
was  that  life  for  our  poor  human  thought  to  compass 
or  fathom. 

Methinks  that  as  that  infant  heart  enlarged  beyond 
its  first  feeble  responses  to  motherly  affection,  there 
steadily  flowed  into  it  a  ceaseless  stream  of  divine  love. 
As  capacity  to  will  developed,  there  kept  apace  the  in- 
filling of  the  divine  will.  As  thoughts  multiplied,  lo ! 
there  gradually  showed  forth  in  Him  the  mind  of  God. 

Thus  from  infantile  and  dependent  existence  rest- 
ing on  the  bosom  of  the  blessed  Virgin  Mother,  with 
all  His  physical  limitations  for  receiving,  but  perfect 
in  all  his  receptions,  there  steadily  expanded  a  physi- 
cal capacity  for  a  larger  portion  of  divine  life.  In 
never-failing  proportions  that  divine  life  occupied  to 
the  full  that  expanding  tenement  of  purest  clay,  until 
there  stood  forth  before  the  world  the  Human  and  Di- 
vine Messiah  in  all  his  physical  maturity.  Thus  "  He 
grew  in  favor  with  God  and  man,"  always  in  perfect 
equipoise  in  His  dual  nature,  but  growing  to  the  full 
stature  of  a  complete  physical  life. 

By  this  incarnation  of  divine  life  there  was  neither 
more  of  God  on  earth  nor  less  of  God  in  heaven,  but 
"  God  manifest  in  the  flesh." 

The  electric  bulb  is  but  the  form  which  reveals  the 
light  from  the  electric  current  pervading  the  wire. 
It  is  the  power  of  electricity  made  manifest  in  the  bulb ; 


WITHIN  THE  SHEEN.  33 

but  when  by  age  and  use  the  bulb  falls  away  the  great 
current  moves  on  in  its  silent  course. 

The  lamp  was  but  the  medium  for  the  revelation  of 
the  electric  light,  as  the  human  form  of  Jesus  the 
Christ  showed  forth  the  true  light  of  the  world.  In 
this  manner  there  came  to  the  world  a  Redeemer — 
Christ  our  King.  "  Through  His  stripes  we  are 
healed." 

VICARIOUS  suffering! — 

a  mystery  which  seems  at  first  insolvable  to  mortal 
mind.  Innocent  love  bruised  and  bleeding  at  the  feet 
of  sin  that  justice  may  be  satisfied.  A  selfish  soul, 
calloused  to  all  the  mystic  influences  of  sadness  and 
suffering  about  it,  moves  in  cold  and  unfeeling  courses 
amidst  the  despairing  and  struggling  victims  in  life's 
moral  wreckage.  When  the  divine  element  of  love 
and  tenderness  enters  such  a  life,  then  that  blessed  but 
now  sad  angel — sympathy — causes  the  heart  to  yearn 
for  others,  the  tear  to  start,  and  turns  the  customary 
hours  of  sleep  into  night  vigils  by  the  cot  of  human 
woe.  He  who  possesses  most  of  holy  love  in  this 
world  suffers  most  vicariously.  It  may  not  be  in  a 
Gethsemane,  on  the  side  of  Olivet,  or  upon  the  cruel 
cross  of  Calvary,  but,  oh,  how  the  spear  thrust  reaches 
the  heart  of  innocent  love!  The  tenderest  hearts  are 
susceptible  to  the  keenest  mental  agonies.  As  we 
move  upward  in  the  scale  of  holy  love,  ascending  step 
by  step,  from  friend  to  brother,  sister,  father,  mother, 
God,  the  sacrificial  suffering  of  the  soul  by  sorrow  for 
the  sins  of  others  is  graduated  and  intensified  by  the 
angle  of  ascent. 


34  WITHIN  THE  SHEEN. 

Love  from  its  very  nature  becomes  a  mediator.  He 
who  in  childish  days  with  Hsping,  stammering  peni- 
tence poured  into  his  mother's  ear  the  story  of  rebel- 
Hon  against  fatherly  authority,  should  recall  how  that 
penitence  and  that  chosen  mediator,  in  a  mysterious 
way,  known  only  to  love,  sweetened,  intensified,  and 
illumined  the  atmosphere  of  that  hour  of  reconcilia- 
tion. 

But  can  the  suffering  of  the  innocent  atone  for  the 
guilty?  Can  another  one's  heart  blood,  and  that  the 
blood  of  the  innocent,  atone  for  sin?     There  is  here 

A  MYSTERY  OF  DIVINE  ALCHEMY. 

A  little  fellow  deliberately  threw  a  stone  and 
smashed  the  window  glass.  The  father  upon  his  re- 
turn home  found  the  little  culprit  holding  to  his 
slightly  older  brother,  who  said,  "  Papa,  Willie  did 
it,  but  I  had  some  pennies  in  my  bank  and  I  went  over 
with  Willie  and  I  paid  the  lady  for  it.  Please,  papa, 
don't  punish  Willie."  As  the  two  little  fellows  stood, 
one  shielding  by  love,  the  other  seeking  the  protec- 
tion of  love,  the  innocent  having  suffered  with  and  for 
the  guilty — what  think  ye?  Was  it  simply  that  after 
the  act  of  sin  the  act  of  paying  money  made  amends 
for  the  willful  deed,  or  was  it  that  a  far  higher  result 
was  obtained  ?  Was  not  the  love  of  each  for  the  other 
intensified  by  that  reciprocity  of  love,  and  was  not  that 
father  greater,  grander,  nobler,  and  more  faithful  to 
the  law  of  justice  in  forgiving  rather  than  punishing? 
To  our  human  thought,  the  penitence  of  the  one  and 
the  vicarious  sacrifice  of  the  other  made  forgiveness 


WITHIN  THE  SHEEN.  35 

a  moral  necessity.  And  so  the  innocent  suffers  for  the 
gfuilty.  Vicarious  suffering  in  a  world  of  sin  by  its 
reflex  influences  on  the  other  souls  about  it,  makes  the 
world  a  brighter,  better,  and  holier  place. 

Widen  this  same  circle  now  and  take  in  the  whole 
moral  realm.  We  will  find  within  it  sin,  atonement 
in  Jesus  Christ,  and  God.  Read  again  the  story  of 
the  little  boys  and  then  see  how  that  from  sin,  atone- 
ment in  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  forgiveness  of  God  we 
experience  "  the  joy  of  the  redeemed." 

We  are  now  up  in  the  realm  of  the  highest  thought. 
Is  there  darkness  about  us?  Is  there  any  mist  of 
doubt  or  uncertainty  obscuring  our  vision?  Then  let 
us  watch  with  sincere  heart-yearning  for  that  sunrise ! 
It's  coming!  May  we  stand  together  on  the  highest 
point  of  observation  raised  above  the  great  ocean  of 
time?  That  mountain  top  is  an  exalted  life  spanned 
by  just  thirty-three  years  and  tracked  by  the  earthly 
footprints  of  our  Lord.  Back  of  us  is  the  rugged 
range  of  Old  Testament  history,  while  before  us  the 
foothills  of  the  New  Dispensation  stretch  away  into  the 
dim  distance  to  a  sea  of  universal  love,  which  sweeps 
about  the  walls  of 

THAT  CELESTIAL  WHITE  CITY^ 

whose  domes  and  minarets  are  just  beyond.  The  sun 
of  prophecy  has  long  since  set.  It  went  down  first  be- 
tween the  twin  peaks  of  lofty  Isaiah  and  rugged  Jere- 
miah. The  weird  Ezekiel  next  becomes  shrouded,  un- 
til at  last  the  sun  of  prophecy  is  veiled  behind  the  minor 
prophets,  disappearing  in  the  sea  of  silence.    For  four 


36  WITHIN  THE  SHEEN. 

hundred  years  thereafter  no  ray  of  prophetic  light 
found  its  way  through  the  black  and  lowering  clouds. 
With  four  long  centuries  of  undisturbed  night  behind 
us,  we  cast  an  expectant  glance  to  the  eastern  horizon. 
A  setting  sun  throws  its  rays  backward ;  a  rising  sun 
casts  its  rays  forward.  The  last  rays  of  prophecy 
were  shed  here  on  this  mountain  where  we  stand,  while 
the  first  dawn  of  sunrise  will  be  witnessed  here.  In 
our  thinking  we  are  at  the  corona  of  glory — our  vision 
sweeps  a  world.  Glorious  opportunity !  Precious 
hour  this,  fated  with  possibilities  of  wonderful  out- 
look ! 

Is  it  strange  to  thee  that  the  divine  and  human  should 
here  meet  and  coalesce  in  a  God-child  born  of  a 
woman?  By  the  touch  of  Almighty  God  at  the 
world's  dawn  of  human  life,  inanimate  nature  was  en- 
ergized, vivified,  and  glorified,  while  from  planetary 
dust  there  arose  by  the  divine  inbreathing  of  life,  a 
race  of  poets,  philosophers,  and  philanthropists — soul- 
ful beings  endowed  with  God-like  qualities  of  father- 
hood, motherhood,  the  love  of  children,  and  all  the 
sweet  virtues  of  spiritual  life. 

Marvel  of  marvels  that  a  little  handful  of  clay,  God- 
touched,  should  have  become  divinely  formed  and  en- 
dowed with  an  immortal  soul — yea,  should  have  be- 
come a  child  of  God  ! 

Is  it  more  of  a  miracle,  then,  that  He  who  caused  in- 
animate nature  to  conceive  and  bring  forth  immortal 
man,  should  unite  with  and  enter  into  the  life  of  that 
sweet  and  pure  virgin  of  Bethlehem,  revealing  thereby 
the  fatherhood  of  God  and  sanctifying  the  mother- 
hood of  earth? 


WITHIN  THE  SHEEN.  37 

It  is  indeed  most  natural  that  the  supreme  thing  in 
the  celestial  world,  the  loving  heart  of  a  Heavenly 
Father,  should  be  displayed  to  our  sordid  human  race 
through  the  most  supernal  of  all  earth's  possessions — 
motherhood — by  immaculate  conception.  Eden  is  a 
greater  mystery  than  Bethlehem. 

While  we  are  waiting  here  for  the  advancing  light 
to  burst  in  over  Bethlehem's  hills,  let  us,  between  the 
hours  of  the  immaculate  conception  and  the  angel 
songs  of  eastern  morn,  look  up  into  the  calm  vault  of 
heaven. 

The  starry  world  hangs  pendent  over  our  heads. 
World  upon  world  and  constellation  upon  constella- 
tion swing  in  golden-belted  highways,  swayed  by  in- 
visible power.  No  material  arm  is  in  sight,  yet  in- 
finite arm  power  sweeps  the  sky.  It's  there.  Some- 
how— yet  there.  Our  soul's  ear  catches  a  voice  in- 
audible and  our  heart  stands  almost  still  as  a  message 
comes  in.  The  doors  are  locked  and  the  windows 
bolted,  and  yet  a  messenger  enters  in  and,  standing  be- 
fore conscience,  speaks,  speaks,  and  conscience  answers 
to  it,  yet  no  vibrations  disturb  the  air  and  no  waves  of 
sound  break  the  sacred  silence  of  the  soul's  temple. 
While  we  are  waiting  keep  thine  eyes  riveted  upon 
the  heavens  above  thee.  The  blanket  of  night  is  spread 
over  the  world  at  thy  feet,  and  thou  art  throwing  thy 
soul  into  the  expanse  above  thee,  where  the  invisible 
forces  are  evidencing  the  mightiest  intelligence  of  the 
universe,  as  its  worlds  are  swinging  pendulums  from 
golden  suns  held  in  place  by  invisible  power.  From 
whence?  Invisible  power  and  invisible  persons  are 
what  we  are  dealing  with  this  day. 


38  WITHIN  THE  SHEEN.. 


ALL  POWER  IS  INVISIBLE. 

The  flashing  Hght  in  the  wake  of  the  flying  meteor 
which  you  saw  was  not  the  power  that  launched  it 
forth.  The  mallet  struck  the  ball — you  saw  it.  The 
mallet  stopped,  but  the  ball  sped  on.  Secret,  invisible 
power  lurked  within — unseen  and  invisible — but  there. 
But  above  thee,  where  thou  art  looking  with  me  now, 
no  visible  physical  contact  transmits,  but  power 
sweeps  the  abysses  and  climbs  the  heights  unspoken 
and  unseen,  except  as  to  thy  soul.  There  it  both 
speaks  and  is  seen  in  the  white-walled  inclosure  of 
thine  inner  consciousness,  where  no  materialism  finds 
its  way  and  where  thou  and  the  Infinite  meet. 

During  the  Revolutionary  War  a  spy  passed  through 
the  British  lines,  bearing  in  his  pocket  a  message  to 
Washington.  He  was  arrested,  and  the  letter  ex- 
amined ;  but  there  being  nothing  seen  in  it  but  a  com- 
monplace letter  to  a  friend,  he  was  released  and  sped 
on.  When  Washington  received  from  his  hand  the 
letter  he  held  it  up  to  the  light,  and  there,  traced  with 
milk,  was  a  communication  of  vital  importance  to  the 
American  armies.  Will  you  hold  up  to  the  light 
"  God's  book  of  nature  "  and  its  sequel,  "  God's  book  of 
inspired  revelation,"  and  catch  a  message  for  your  own 
heart  as  you  discover  the  invisible  power  and  the  in- 
visible persons  lurking  therein? 

Until  recently  I  thought  there  were  but  three  per- 
sons crucified  together  that  awful  night  on  Calvary: 
Christ  in  the  center,  and  a  thief  on  the  right  and  a 
thief  on  the  left.     By  putting  the  Gospel  accounts  to- 


WITHIN  THE  SHEEN.  39 

gether,  with  a  study  of  Paul's  epistle,  I  find  that  we 
cannot  harmonize  the  accounts  of  the  Crucifixion,  un- 
less we  admit  that  there  were  four  crucified  together. 
Christ's  cross  bore  not  only  himself,  but  another.  I 
follow  the  narrative,  and  find  that  Joseph  of  Ari- 
mathaea's  tomb  contained  Christ  and  a  companion  from 
His  cross,  while  on  the  golden  morning  of  the  Resur- 
rection, when  the  flashing  angelic  swords  cleft  the  seal 
and  cut  the  bands,  Christ  and  a  companion  came  forth 
together  to  that  Resurrection.  Noting  the  phraseol- 
ogy, I  sweep  back  in  eager  thought  to  the  scene  of 
Christ's  baptism,  and  there  too  the  Word  admits  of  an- 
other being  baptized  with  Him.  Let  us,  with  the  most 
solemn  thought  toward  God,  press  the  inquiry,  Who 
was  that  other  one  ? 

BELIEVER,    THOU    ART   THE   ONE ! 

"  With  Christ  in  baptism  "  (Col.  ii.  12)  ;  "  Crucified 
with  Christ  "  (Gal.  ii.  20.)  ;  "  Dead  with  Christ  "  (Col. 
ii.  20)  ;  "  Risen  with  Him  "  (Col.  ii.  12)  ;  "  Compan- 
ions with  Him  forevermore  "  (Matt,  xxviii.  20), 

Believer,  how  do  you  honor  or  dishonor  that  com- 
panionship? Oh,  servant  of  God,  dost  thou  only 
dream  of  this,  or  hast  thou  gotten  the  thought  of  di- 
vine companionship  woven  into  the  very  warp  and 
woof  of  thy  nature,  so  that  thou  art  weaving  the  de- 
sign of  thy  life  like  unto  the  life  of  Jesus  the  Christ  of 
God? 

While  we  have  been  waiting  and  talking  together 
the  light  has  burst  over  Judah's  hills, 

"  There's  a  mother's  deep  prayer, 
And  a  baby's  low  cry! 


40  WITHIN  THE  SHEEM. 

And  the  Star  rains  its  fire  while  the  beautiful  sing, 
For  the  Manger  of  Bethlehem  cradles  a  King." 

The  angelic  chorus  has  startled  the  morning  still- 
ness ;  the  wise  men  have  bowed  at  the  manger's  side, 
and  the  temple  has  received  the  youth.  His  fame  has 
gone  out  through  all  the  land.  Sickness  has  fled  be- 
fore Him,  while  death  itself  has  for  the  first  time  felt 
the  irresistible  power  of  a  revealed  Christ  who  came 
to  lift  the  weight  of  human  sorrows. 

Enthusiastic  crowds  meanwhile  pressed  Him  on 
all  sides,  until,  transformed  into  a  raging  mob,  they 
showed  Him  to  us  crucified,  dead,  buried.  Then  came 
the  dashing  charge  of  the  angels  to  the  sepulcher,  the 
very  flash  of  whose  glances  paralyzed  the  Roman 
guards.  Then  followed  the  reassertion  of  life.  We 
now  in  this  panorama  behold  the  glory-crowned 
Mount  of  Ascension,  and  "  He  is  received  out  of  their 
sight." 

A  forsaken  world  visited  and  a  visited  world  for- 
saken! Is  that  your  creed?  If  so,  stand  with  us  as 
the  advancing  day  permits  us  to  discern  the  succeeding 
acts  of  the  Apostles,  in  which  the  Invisible  is  brought 
to  our  sight  with  such  strange  power  and  overwhelm- 
ing influence. 

The  revelation  opens  up  with  the  statement  that  what 
has  passed  in  such  rapidity  before  our  vision  between 
Bethlehem  and  the  Ascension  was  but  the  beginning  of 
Christ's  work.  From  Bethlehem  to  the  Ascension 
marked  but  the  beginning  of  Christ's  marvelous  re- 
demptive work. 

Listen  to  the  record  (Acts  i.  i)  :  Luke  says  ''The 
former  treatise  have  I  written  unto  you,  O  Theophilus, 


WITHIN  THE  SHEEN.  41 

of  all  that  Jesus  began  both  to  do  and  to  teach."  The 
gospels  are  but  the  history  of  the  inauguration  of 
Christ's  work  and  words.  "  Began  both  to  do  and  to 
teacii."  Either  He  has  abandoned  His  work,  or  He  is 
yet  doing  it.  "  Lo,  I  am  with  you  all  the  days  "  was 
the  statement.  How  can  that  harmonize  with  His 
actual  absence ?  Ah !  Note  ye :  "a  cloud  received 
Him  out  of  their  sight."  He  became  invisible!  As 
He  appeared  "  in  the  upper  room  "  and  was  invisible 
between  the  door  and  the  middle  of  the  room,  so  He 
vanished  from  their  sight,  but  remained  our  ever-pres- 
ent Lord.  No  more  physical,  earthly  presence  to  di- 
vide or  limit  the  soul  thought.  Mary,  the  sister  of  the 
entombed  Lazarus,  said,  "  Lord,  if  thou  hadst  been 
here,  our  brother  had  not  died."  Was  not  our  Lord 
there  ?  Being  physically  out  in  the  desert.  He  was  not 
thought  of  as  being  in  Bethany.  He  was  hedged  in 
to  the  thought  of  His  most  loving  followers,  the 

WOMEN  OF  BETHANY, 

because  of  His  physical  environment.  Freed  from 
those  earthly  conceptions  and  His  embodiment.  He  is 
lifted  up  in  our  thought  to  the  eternal  throne  of  God 
and  becomes  to  us  our  always-present  Lord  and 
Saviour. 

It  w^as  a  strange  message  that  Christ  delivered  to  His 
disciples  just  before  He  left,  and  w'hich,  while  one  of 
the  most  sublime  and  important  of  all  His  utterances, 
is  one  of  the  least  comprehended  by  the  Church.  He 
stated  the  necessity  of  His  becoming  invisible  that  He 
might  give  unto  His  followers  the  ministration  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.     The  doctrine  laid  down  is  that  compan- 


42  WITHIN  THE  SHEEN,. 

ionship  with  Christ  is  not  enough.  Note  carefully  the 
petitions  of  His  disciples  and  their  reliance  all  centered 
in  the  visible  Christ.  No  prayer  is  recorded  before 
the  Ascension  in  which  the  disciples  prayed  to  the 
Father  or  to  the  Holy  Spirit.  Yet  Christ  prayed  con- 
tinually. Therefore  it  became  a  necessity  that  He 
should  go  into  the  invisible  realm  so  that  the  Holy 
Spirit  should  reveal  unto  them  the  Fatherhood  of  God, 
the  Omnipresent  Christ,  and  the  universal  ministra- 
tions of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Bethlehem  was  a  necessity  to  reach  the  world. 
Calvary  was  a  necessity  to  redeem  the  world.  Pente- 
cost was  a  necessity  to  sanctify  the  world. 

When  our  Lord  had  departed,  there  were  two  things 
that  His  disciples  knew  that  they  must  do: 

First:  Model  their  lives  after  His. 

Second :  Witness  for  Him. 

But  our  Blessed  Master  had  practically  said :  "  I  am 
going  away,  and  will  leave  you  unfitted  to  witness  for 
me.  You  know  all  about  my  miraculous  coming. 
You  know  all  about  my  ministry.  You  were  with  me 
in  Gethsemane  and  at  Calvary.  You  stood  by  at  the 
Resurrection.  You  companioned  with  me  during 
many  days  of  happy  reunion  after  death,  and  thou  art 
to  see  me  caught  up  into  the  invisible  realm  beyond 
thee,  while  heavenly  heralds  are  to  bid  thee  speed  on. 
I  know  your  hearts  are  eager  to  tell  the  story,  while 
Calvary  stands  as  a  monument  to  the  intensity  of  my 
desire  to  win  a  lost  world.  But,"  He  said,  "  wait, 
wait,  wait !  " 

Those  disciples  had  knowledge,  experience,  and  will- 
ing hearts.     "  Not  enough,"  says  our  Lord,  "  to  carry 


WITHIN  THE  SHEEN.  43 

the  priceless  message  to  a  lost  world."  Not  enough! 
There  is  a  force,  a  power,  a  personality  that  must  come 
into  thy  hfe  before  thou  art  prepared.  Thus  does 
Christ  magnify  the  Holy  Spirit,  invisible  to  our  sight, 
but  present  at  our  side,  waiting  to  take  possession  of 
our  hearts. 

While  wise  men  bow  at  Bethlehem  let  wise  men  also 
bow  at  Pentecost.  While  the  frankincense  and  myrrh 
sweeten  the  air  in  that  City  of  David,  the  birthplace  of 
the  Messiah,  let  the  offerings  of  love  and  adoration  be 
likewise  poured  out  at  Pentecost,  the  birthplace  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  Oh,  thou  blessed  Comforter,  be  Thou 
our  Guide  forevermore! 

Oh,  brethren,  do  you  know  Christ?  So  did  the  un- 
prepared disciples.  Have  you  experience  in  walking 
in  His  footsteps?  So  had  the  unprepared  disciples. 
Have  you  a  willing  heart  for  testimony?  So  had  the 
unprepared  disciples.  Do  you  say,  "  What  lack  I 
yet  ?  "  Do  you  not  lack  what  the  Church  of  Christ 
so  greatly  needs  to-day — a  special  baptism  of  the  Holy 
Spirit?  Are  you  being  guided  in  all  your  thoughts 
and  speech  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  or  are  you  like  the  pro- 
fessed disciples  just  before  Pentecost  (casting  lots  for 
a  successor  to  Judas),  having  your  course  steered  by 
chance  or  uncertain  events?  I  call  your  close  and 
prayerful  attention  to  the  Apostles  as  w-e  watch  them 
from  our  vantage-point  of  observation.  The  com- 
mand of  our  Lord  to  His  disciples  to  wait  until  the 
Holy  Spirit  should  be  given  to  them  was  met  by  their 
gathering  together  and  spending  ten  days  in  prayer  for 
such  a  baptism  and  a  personal  revelation  of  a  personal 
comforter.    Think  of  it  for  a  moment.     That  com- 


44  WITHIN  THE  SHEEN. 

mand  meant,  Do  not  take  a  step ;  do  not  speak  a  word ; 
do  not  undertake  in  any  way  to  make  a  move  to  carry 
into  effect  the  great  commission  unless  under  the  per- 
sonal influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Now  let  us  watch 
the  effect,  as  with 

MIGHTY,    MAJESTIC    STEP 

the  Holy  Spirit,  receiving  the  intense  petitions  of  the 
disciples,  crowns  Pentecost  with  His  sublime  pres- 
ence. Oh,  what  tremendous  obligations  crowd  in  upon 
us  to  God  the  Father,  who  from  the  wealth  of  His 
infinite  love  sent  His  Son  into  the  world.  Oh,  what 
tremendous  obligations  crowd  in  upon  us  to  God  the 
Son,  who  gave  Himself  a  sacrifice  for  a  lost  world! 
Oh,  what  tremendous  obligations  crowd  in  upon  us  to 
God  the  Holy  Spirit — He  who  brooded  over  the  world 
at  the  Creation ;  He  who  gave  the  torch  of  ligifit  to  the 
Old  Testament  prophets,  enabling  them  to  foreshadow 
the  Messiah  to  come !  It  was  the  Holy  Spirit  who 
brought  the  man  Christ  into  being,  descended  upon 
Him  in  the  form  of  a  dove  at  baptism,  and  was  with 
Him  in  the  desert.  It  was  of  the  Holy  Spirit  that  our 
blessed  Lord  loved  to  talk  in  His  last  conversations 
with  His  disciples  before  the  Crucifixion.  It  was  the 
Holy  Spirit  of  whom  He  made  that  glorious  prophecy 
that  portends  so  much  to  you  and  me — that  He  should 
descend  upon  His  disciples  in  all  time  and  fill  them 
with  Himself.  Then  follows  that  resplendent  galaxy 
of  flashing  promises  that  reveals  to  us  the  blessed  mis- 
sion of  the  Holy  Spirit  who  was  to  descend  as  "  that 
other  Comforter." 

He  shall  lead  the  disciples  into  all  truth. 


WITHIN  THE  SHEEN.  45 

Do  you  want  to  be  guided  and  led  into  a  full  knowl- 
edge of  the  divine  love?  Do  you  want  to  know  your 
Saviour  as  you  have  never  known  Him  before?  Do 
you  want  His  Word  to  blaze  forth  with  new  light  and 
ring  with  sweeter  words  of  comfort  and  joy?  Then 
pray  for  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  cease  not  that  prayer 
until  the  answer  comes. 

He  sliall  be  the  guide  and  companion  of  the  Church. 

Dost  thou  want  that  Holy  Spirit  to  companion  with 
thy  soul?  to  lead  thee  into  labors  of  love,  lighten 
thy  days  with  His  sweet  converse,  and  keep  thee  close 
to  the  Father-heart  of  God  ?  Then  pray  for  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  cease  not  that  prayer  until  the  answer 
comes. 

He  shall  make  us  like  unto  Christ. 

Do  you  want  the  same  mind  in  you  that  was  in 
Christ  Jesus  our  Lord?  Do  you  want  fitness  for  serv- 
ice? Do  you  want  to  have  power  from  on  high? 
Then  pray  for  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  cease  not  that 
prayer  until  the  answer  comes. 

Then  to  that  Holy  Spirit,  to  wdiom  we  owe  our 
salvation,  our  knowledge  of  Christ,  our  promptings 
to  a  better  life,  and  from  whom  we  receive  the  blessed 
guidance  and  help  of  His  daily  companionship,  be 
glory  and  honor  for  ever  and  ever ! 

Shall  we  open  up  our  hearts  now — even  now — to  the 
reception  of  the  Holy  Spirit  ?  "  Be  ye  filled  wath  the 
Holy  Ghost."  Oh,  that  we  workers  could  be  brought 
by  the  Blessed  Spirit  close  to  the  heart  of  the  Man  of 
Sorrows!  Then  we  w^ould  easily  find  our  way  to  the 
heart  of  sorrowing  humanity.  The  secret  of  the  early 
Church  was  that  it  was 


46  WITHIN  THE  SHEEN. 

First:  Full  of  Faith. 

Second :  Full  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

How  did  the  Holy  Spirit  descend  upon  the  early 
disciples  ? 

First :  As  a  sound  of  rushing  wind  (but  there  was  no 
wind).     Manifest  power! 

Second :  Cloven,  fiery  tongues.  Witness  power — 
power  to  witness. 

"  Ye  are  my  witnesses."  But  note  the  statement, 
"  After  the  Holy  Ghost  is  come  upon  you,  ye  shall  be 
witnesses  unto  me."  After — after — "  after  the  Holy 
Ghost  is  come  upon  you."  Dare  you  teach  a  Sunday- 
school  class  without  being  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost? 
Dare  you  live?  Dare  you  live  without  the  intense  as- 
surance that  He  is  abiding  in  thy  soul?  How  sweet 
the  atmosphere  of  thy  secret  life  will  be  with  such  a 
guest!  The  Holy  Spirit  is  always  spoken  of  in  God's 
Book  in  terms  of  gentleness,  love,  and  tenderness.  We 
read  of  the  wrath  of  God  the  Father,  the  wrath  of 
God  the  Son,  the  judgment  and  the  tribunals  of  the 
Father  and  the  Son;  but  the  Holy  Spirit  is  always 
spoken  of  as  tenderness  and  love. 

Oh,  that  He  might  enter  into  full  possession  of  our 
souls,  to  guide  our  ambition,  illuminate  our  thought, 
and,  taking  complete  possession  of  our  minds,  make 
our  lives  conform  to  His  whole  nature ! 

Now  lift  thy  thought  to  the  very  throne  of  God! 

Jesus  was  a  man.  Within  Him  was  God,  and  He 
became  the  Christ  of  a  world. 

You  are  a  man.  The  promise  is  that  within  you 
God  the  Holy  Ghost  may  dwell,  and  then  thou  wilt 
become  a  Christ  in  thine  influence.     "  As  thou  hast 


WITHIN  THE  SHEEM.  47 

sent  me  into  the  world,  even  so,  even  so,  send  I  them 
into  the  world."  Marvelous  possibilities,  stupendous 
privileges.  Shall  we  not  seek  above  all  other  things 
to  be  filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  so  companion 
with  Him  for  the  Christ's  sake?    Amen. 


"  I  would  not  have  you  ignorant,  brethren,  of  them  who  are 
asleep." 


OUR  VANISHED  LOVED  ONES. 

"  I  am  He  that  liveth,  and  was  dead  ;  and  behold,  I  am  alive 
foreverraore,  amen;  and  have  the  keys  of  death  and  of 
the  realm  of  the  departed  spirits." — Rev.  i.  i8. 

Once  in  boyhood  days,  when  fever  laid  its  hand 
upon  me,  I  tossed  with  bhnded  eyes  and  deHrious 
brain,  fearing  every  imaginable  evil,  when  out  of  the 
blackness  about  me  I  heard  a  voice  that  dispelled  all 
the  discordant  cries  which  were  rending  my  disordered 
brain.  I  felt  a  throbbing  which  I  knew  meant  that  I, 
a  little  boy,  was  held  and  kept  on  mother's  bosom  and 
was  being  spoken  to  by  mother's  love.  An  ineffable 
light  illumined  my  soul,  and  I  was  at  rest. 

Later  on  I  followed  her  down  to  where  two  worlds 
met,  and  kneeling  at  that  bedside  I  saw  the  marvelous 
radiance  from  a  redeemed  spirit  already  plumed  for 
its  heavenly  flight.  Then  I  saw  her  pass  beyond  the 
range  of  my  natural  vision,  but  she  did  not  hurry. 
She  for  some  little  time  rested  there  in  the  Valley  of 
Shadows  and  sweetly  talked  with  me.  She  told  me 
that  she  knew  the  shadows  were  there,  but  they  were 
only  there  to  us  who  remained  behind.  "  All  is  light 
to  me,"  she  added,  "  all  is  light ;  Jesus  is  here."  I  was 
behind  her,  as  it  were.  The  golden  light  of  the  Celes- 
tial One  she  saw  beyond  her,  left  for  me  the  shadow  of 
my  earthly  loss.  Her  vision  was  clear.  Two  worlds 
for  her  were  billowed  in  light.  As  I  brushed  away 
the  blinding  tears,  behold,  I  saw  no  more,  for 


52  OUR    VANISHED   LOVED    ONES. 


SHE    HAD    BECOME    INVISIBLE. 

Somehow  my  mind  has  not  been  satisfied  with  the 
statement  that  we  are  separated.  Only  one  change 
has  come  over  me — I  cannot  see  her  with  these  now 
faihng  natural  eyes ;  that  is  all.  I  never  did  see  her, 
anyway.  I  daily  saw  her  face,  which  carried  an  out- 
ward expression  of  a  wonderful  spiritual  life  within, 
but  I  never  saw  that  life.  I  had  heard  her  expressions 
of  love  for  her  boy,  and  had  felt  its  manifestations,  but 
I  never  saw  that  divine  flame.  So  when  her  voice  failed 
and  her  face  took  on  its  last  beatific  expressions,  love 
lived  on  with  me,  and  I  know  that  love  lived  on  with 
her;  the  reflecting  medium  had  simply  given  out,  or 
had  it  been  changed  for  another?  Were  those  loves 
separated?     Would  God  separate  them? 

I  have  been  ever  since  watching  the  opening  into 
that  mystic  realm  called  death.  Other  of  my  dear 
ones  have  meanwhile  vanished  therein,  and  there  has 
gradually  come  to  me  a  new  and  strange  impression, 
a  deep  calm  and  a  blessed  companioning,  until  the  long- 
ing of  my  soul  is  now  not  to  go,  but  only  to  see,  for 
seeing  is  going  and  going  is  seeing — one  is  but  a 
synonym  of  the  other.  The  term  "  departed  spirit  "  is 
a  misnomer,  if  I  read  aright  the  Word  of  God.  In 
wandering  along  the  portals  constantly  swinging  open 
into  that  realm,  I  came  to  an  old  passageway.  It  was 
where  Jacob  went  through,  and  the  statement  is  made 
on  indisputable  authority  that  he  was  "  gathered  to  his 
people."  A  strange  expression  prevalent  among  no- 
madic tribes,  the  memory  of  whose  sepulchered  dead 


OUR    VANISHED   LOVED    ONES.  53 

haloed  their  resting-places  along  the  line  of  wandering, 
as  in  solitary  graves  they  kept  death's  vigils. 

How  blessed  to  our  thought  that  this  wondrous 
Book  of  God  opens  so  early  with  the  statement  that  in 
passing  over  we  go  to  our  loved  ones !  Yea,  even  be- 
fore Jacob's  invisibility  God  had  hung  out  a  light  over 
the  entry  into  the  eternal  world  by  telling  Abraham  in 
a  wondrous  revelation  that  when  he  should  be  called 
hence  he  would  go  to  his  fathers  who  had  gone  before. 
And  so  there  comes  that  assurance  of  reunion  with  our 
loved  ones,  as  old  as  the  Word  of  God  itself.  This 
answers  to  the  heart-yearning  so  strong  in  all  of  God's 
children.  It  responds  to  our  desire  for  the  unity  of 
loves  in  the  realms  of  light. 

Somehow  with  anxious  forebodings  we  ponder 
the  thought,  "  Will  our  loved  ones  who  have  entered 
into  the  larger  life  be  to  us,  when  we  join  them, 
what  they  were  to  us  when  we  companioned  together 
with  them  in  this  lesser  life  ? "  What  means  that 
strange  utterance  of  the  inspired  writer,  "  In  a  moment, 
in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  w^e  shall  be  changed  "  ? 
Will  earthly  ties  vanish?  Does  the  statement  that 
there  "  They  neither  marry  nor  are  given  in  marriage  " 
sound  the  death  knell  to  that  bond,  sanctified  by  love's 
joys  and  sorrows?  Can  it  be  that  the  sweetest  ties 
born  of  life's  companionships  are  "  changed  "  or  de- 
stroyed as  we  pass  through  that  strange  ordeal  so  mis- 
takenly called  death? 

Let  us  bear  in  mind  that  the  better  life  is  a  spiritual 
existence.  The  physical,  sensual,  and  materialistic  na- 
tures that  we  no\w  have  will  there  be  transformed  into 
glorified  bodies  which  will  thrill  only  with  the  highest 


54  OUR   VANISHED   LOVED   ONES. 

and  holiest  spiritual  emotions.  Sensual  joys  will  be 
forever  succeeded  by  spiritual  delights. 

We  all  appreciate  the  fact  that  there  are  blood  re- 
lationships here,  where  no  "  kinship  of  spirit "  exists. 
On  the  contrary,  we  ofttimes  witness  in  this  world  evi- 
dences of  a  spiritual  brotherhood  where  there  beats  but 
the  physical  pulsations  of  a  common  humanity. 

When  our  Divine  Master  said,  "  He  that  doeth  the 
will  of  my  father  which  is  in  heaven,  the  same  is  my 
mother,  my  sister,  and  my  brother,"  He  let  us  some- 
what into  the  secret  of  the  relationships  which  shall 
exist  when  we  shall  be  "  at  home  with  the  Lord." 

Let  us  gather  up  in  thought  all  that  there  is  in  the 
heart  of  motherhood,  in  sisterly  love  and  brotherly  af- 
fection, and  blending  it  together  as  we  conceive  it  ex- 
ists in  our  Heavenly  Father's  home,  we  will  have  but  a 
faint  conception  of  the  love  ties,  or  spiritual  relation- 
ships, between  the  redeemed  spirit  and  our  blessed 
Lord.  If,  then,  all  who  enter  into  that  larger  life  are 
to  experience  such  a  marvelous  enrichment  of  the  soul's 
affections,  will  not  the  element  of  chai-acter  which  we 
so  adore  in  our  loved  ones  here  be  infinitely  beautified, 
to  the  intensifying  of  our  affections  toward  them 
there  ? 

Will  not  our  own  infilling  from  the  Divine  Nature 
make  its  irresistible  appeal  to  the  hearts  of  those  who 
with  a  new  heavenly  vision  will  see  our  likeness  to 
Jesus  Christ? 

When  our  loved  ones  shall  sit  with  us  at  the  feet  of 
Jesus  in  the  celestial  realm,  with  all  human  frailties 
gone  and  all  hearts  filled  to  overflowing  with  the  holi- 
est emotions,  will  not  love  flow  at  high  tide? 


OUR    VANISHED   LOVED   ONES.  55 

But  are  they  far  hence?  The  babe  Hftcd  by  angelic 
being's  from  its  mother's  bosom,  but  also  from  a 
world's  terrible  moral  hazards — 

IS  IT  FAR  OFF? 

The  loved  wife  on  whom  someone  leaned  in  that 
sweetest  of  life's  joys — wifely  love — is  she  far  hence? 
It  is  not  a  day's  journey!  This  is  certain,  for  He  who 
lifted  the  penitent  one  from  the  cruel  cross  to  celestial 
joys  said  to  him,  "  This  day  shalt  thou  be  with  me  in 
Paradise,"  and  so  within  the  compass  of  but  a  few 
hours  our  thought  should  look  with  that  confident  hope 
that  we  shall  find  within  it  our  spiritual  ones,  and  in 
the  finding  shall  have  new  joys  by  companioning  with 
them  in  the  Divine  Presence. 

One  joyful  thought  entering  into  this  inquiry  is  that 
time  and  distance  are  unknown  and  non-existent  in  the 
other  life,  A  thousand  years  to  them  are  "  but  as 
yesterday."  Not  as  to-day  with  its  wearisome  cares, 
but  as  yesterday  with  its  vague  recollections,  or  as  a 
single  "  watch  in  the  night."  The  whole  period  of 
human  existence  on  this  planet  is  less  than  the  dim 
memories  of  an  earthly  day's  span  to  the  glorified 
spirits  amidst  the  beatific  joys  of  eternity.  "  No 
more  time !  "  Wherever  our  loved  ones  are,  the  as- 
surance comes  to  us  that  in  point  of  time  they  cannot 
be  far  away,  for  time  is  eliminated  from  the  heavenly 
life.  For  our  hungry  hearts,  wearied  with  the  lonely 
vigils  here,  this  truth,  while  comforting,  does  not  en- 
tirely fill  the  void  that  seems  to  exist  between  us  and 
our  invisible  ones.  It  might  not  take  them  long  to 
come  to  us,  but  do  they  come  and  are  they  very  near? 


56  OUR    VANISHED   LOVED   ONES. 

Oh,  for  an  answer  whereby  our  turbulent  thoughts 
might  safely  rest  in  conscious  companionship  with 
them  here,  as  we  shall  some  day  in  more  clearness  of 
vision  companion  with  them  there ! 

One  thing  is  sure:  the  angels  are  constantly  minis- 
tering to  all  His  loved  ones  in  this  world  of  ours. 
"  Are  they  not  all  ministering  spirits  sent  forth  to  min- 
ister unto  them  who  are  heirs  of  salvation?"  All 
down  through  the  ages,  kings,  prophets,  apostles,  and 
martyrs,  with  the  blessed  Christ,  have  borne  testimony 
to  these  sweet  messengers  of  comfort.  There  can  be 
no  mistake  but  that  there  is  a  clear  revelation  contained 
in  the  Word  of  God  that  most  of  heaven  is  here  with 
us.  God's  universality  is  left  nowhere  in  doubt.  Our 
blessed  Lord  said,  "  Lo,  I  am  with  you  always,"  and 
the  Holy  Spirit's  constant  abiding  among  us  and  in 
us  is  clearly  affirmed  with  such  supreme  delight  to  the 
heart  of  every  true  child  of  God.  How  the  soul  should 
fill  with  joy  over  the  divine  goodness  in  revealing  the 
fact  that  all  the  angels  are  sent  forth  to  minister  to 
Christ's  followers  in  this  earthly  conflict!  There  can 
be  no  question,  then,  that  all  the  celestial  powers,  from 
the  Most  High  God  to  the  humblest  angel  of  light, 

ARE    ACTIVELY    ENLISTED 

in  a  world's  redemption,  and  are  with  us  in  the  con- 
flict. Why  should  we,  then,  for  a  single  moment  sup- 
pose that  our  own  loved  ones  are  the  only  exiles  from 
this  most  sweet  and  joyous  service  to  Him  who  gave 
Himself  for  us?  With  our  present  conceptions  of  God 
such  would  not  seem  possible.     Let  us,  however,  move 


OUR   VANISHED  LOVED   ONES.  57 

along  the  line  of  the  Christ  revelation,  and  new  gleams 
of  light  will  flash  in  upon  us  with  heavenly  radiance. 

Jesus  the  Christ  taught  His  disciples  by  special  reve- 
lations when  He  desired  them  to  know  more  fully  some 
deep  truth. 

When  in  the  darkness  of  the  prison's  gloom  John  the 
Baptist  felt  the  black  shadow  of  doubt  in  his  soul,  he 
sent  to  Jesus  and  asked  Him  if  He  was  really  the  One 
that  was  to  come,  or  must  he  look  for  another.  Jesus 
replied  by  simply  letting  John's  disciples  look  into  His 
miraculous  work. 

When  the  disciples  needed  to  be  taught  of  His  great 
love  for  the  sinner,  He  let  them  zvitness  the  climax  to 
the  scene  at  Samaria's  well. 

As  the  lesson  of  humility  was  needed,  they  beheld, 
and  lo !  He  washed  their  feet. 

So  as  He  desired  to  let  them  and  us  further  into  the 
secret  of  the  eternal  world.  He  took  Peter,  James,  and 
John  with  Him  into  the  mountain  for  a  soul  vision. 

It  was  no  new  thing  for  Him  to  go  into  the  moun- 
tain apart.  All  day  He  walked  and  talked  with  those 
of  this  world,  and  then  as  "  every  man  went  unto  his 
own  house  Jesus  went  into  the  Mount  of  Olives  "  or 
elsewhere  and  companioned  with  the  Invisible.  The 
record  is  very  plain  that  spiritual  communings  were 
His  sometimes  for  a  w^iole  night.  So  He  took  the 
three  disciples  up  into  the  mountain  with  Him,  and 
they  fell  asleep.  When  they  awoke  He  permitted  them 
to  sec  who  were  with  Him,  and  there  in  calm,  sweet, 
heavenly  converse  sat  Jesus,  Moses,  and  Elijah.  They 
were  talking  about  earthly  events  that  were  to  occur 
in  the  life  work  of  our  Lord.     Just  as  angels  had  been 


S8  OUR   VANISHED  LOVED  ONES. 

found  to  be  with  Him  elsewhere,  so  here  in  the  divine 
counsels,  and  seen  by  special  permission,  were  these 
earthly  redeemed  ones.  Conversant  they  seemed  to 
be  with  the  affairs  of  the  earthly  kingdom.  Strange, 
was  it  not,  that  the  disciples  being  permitted  to  use  their 
spiritual  vision  knew  who  Christ's  two  companions 
were?  Simply  by  a  change  in  their  power  of  sight 
they  also  beheld  a  new  Christ,  for  He  was  transfigured 
before  them.  Ah,  could  we  but  see  with  that  peculiar 
sight  from  which  our  eyes  are  now  holden,  whom 
might  we  not  see?    The  disciples 

SIMPLY    HAD    A    FOREGLEAM 

of  that  hour  when  they  should  know  even  as  they  were 
then  known.  These  heavenly  ones  were  present  with 
the  disciples  while  they  stupidly  slept,  and  were  appar- 
ent only  to  them  when  God  for  a  moment  opened  their 
vision  a  little  wider.  It  should  be  remembered  that 
there  were  three  witnesses  who  beheld  this  glorious 
scene. 

One  fact  is  clear:  Wherever  Jesus  is,  there  are  our 
saved,  vanished,  and  loved  ones.  When  we  depart  we 
shall  be  with  Christ,  which  is  far  better  (Phil.  i.  23), 
so  that  when  we  are  absent  from  the  body  we  are  pres- 
ent with  the  Lord  (2  Cor.  v.  8). 

Another  fact  is  clear:  If  we  are  His  disciples,  then 
wherever  we  are,  there  Jesus  is. 

Our  blessed  Lord  on  the  Mount  companioned  on  His 
earthly  side  with  Peter,  James,  and  John,  and  on  His 
heavenly  side  was  companioning  with  Moses  and  Eli- 
jah; so  that  side  by  side  in  the  holy  company  of  our 
Lord  these  of  heaven  and  earth  sat  together — to  the 


OUR   VANISHED  LOVED   ONES.  59 

disciples  for  a  time  unconsciously,  but  they  were  there 
together,  nevertheless. 

With  this  wonderful  picture  before  us,  we  have  an 
illustration  given  to  us  by  our  loving  Master  that  the 
redeemed  in  heaven  and  the  redeemed  on  earth  coyn- 
panion  together  in  that  most  blessed  of  all  associations 
— Unity  in  Christ.  If  that  unity  is  perfect,  no  space 
can  divide  and  no  time  can  separate  us  from  each  other. 
Oh,  how  we  should  seek  to  keep  in  that  most  holy 
bond!  Separation  from  our  loved,  invisible  ones  can 
only  occur  when  they  or  we  are  exiled  from  Christ.  If 
so  near,  may  we  not  speak  to  these  dear  ones,  and  why 
can  we  not  receive  just  one  message  from  them  ?  Why 
should  we  desire  to  commune  one  with  the  other? 
Perfect  faith  in  the  word  of  God  should  satisfy  this 
craving  of  our  souls. 

Fellow-disciples,  is  it  possible  that  we  so  doubt  our 
Lord's  statement  that  in  order  to  believe  Him  we  must, 
Thomas-like,  see  with  the  mortal  eye  and  hear  with  the 
fleshly  ear  ?  Lo !  He  speaketh  to  the  heart  of  man,  and 
only  to  the  eye  of  faith  does  the  celestial  vista  now 
open  to  the  soul  of  man  ere  he  is  permitted  to  wing  his 
flight  through  realms  of  eternal  joy.  Somehow  I  feel 
that 

MESSAGES  ARE  PASSING 

constantly  from  one  to  the  other,  but  there  is  failure 
here  to  understand  the  heavenly  voices,  coming  as  they 
do  in  the  language  of  heaven.  Our  limited  knowledge 
of  the  spiritual  world  narrows  the  possibilities  down, 
and  yet  some  few  things  we  do  know.     In  this  world 


6o  OUR    VANISHED   LOVED    ONES. 

of  ours  words  are  but  the  evidences  of  mental  action. 
It  is  the  thought  we  are  after.  So  as  we  ponder  the 
problem,  it  seems  very  clear  that  God  through  His  in- 
finite love  gives  us  the  key  to  the  soul  desires  for  us 
of  our  invisible  loved  ones  and  transmits  to  us  the  reve- 
lation of  their  heart-throbs  in  our  behalf. 

Son,  is  thy  mother  with  Christ  in  the  better  realm? 
You  know  then,  under  the  divine  light  of  God's  Word, 
what  her  message  to  your  soul  is.  Could  it  be  other 
than  Christ's  invitation  to  you? 

Husband,  has  the  wife  of  thy  love  passed  into  that 
realm  so  near,  so  beautiful,  and  so  holy?  Listen  to  the 
voice  speaking  in  thy  soul.  Does  it  not  interpret  her 
message.     Yes  ? 

Oh,  mother,  wife,  daughter,  sister,  thy  loved  one  is 
with  Jesus,  and  Christ  is  either  in  your  heart  or  at  the 
door  of  your  heart,  and  your  loved  one  is  there  with 
Him.  Stop  and  listen  !  Away  back  in  the  secret  cham- 
ber of  your  soul  His  voice  speaks.  Listen !  Would 
your  loved  one  send  any  other  message  than  that?  In 
the  awful  extremity  of  a  world's  need,  all  heaven  can 
have  but  one  message  for  each  of  us,  while  the  world 
can  have  but  one  answer  which  it  could  feel  was  fitted 
to  it. 

Heaven's  united  message  is,  Follow  Jesus.  The  an- 
swering message  should  be  the  gift  of  self  to  God. 
Then  that  bond  of  blessed  companionship  is  completed, 
and  we  in  our  very  deepest  natures  will  enjoy  that  most 
holy  relation,  simply  waiting  for  that  bright  and 
golden  moment  when  the  veil  shall  be  riven,  the  vision 
expanded,  the  weary  body  divested,  and  we  move,  not 
out  to,  but  into  that  realm  where  we  shall  be  gathered 


OUR   VANISHED   LOVED   ONES.  6i 

to  our  people.  Happy  moment — oh,  longed-for  hour! 
Feeling  the  sweetness  of  their  blessed  presence  with  us 
now,  but  then  seeing  the  celestial  light  of  their  spirits 
divine.  Now  knowing  something,  but  so  weakly,  of 
the  divine  companionship,  but  then  knowing  as  we  are 
known. 


A  VISION  BY  THE  SEA. 

I  PITCHED  my  tent  one  summer  night  on  a  point  of 
land  extending  far  out  into  the  sea.  As  darkness  set- 
tled down  upon  me  the  storm-clouds  that  had  been 
gathering  all  that  day  came  rolling  in  upon  the  land. 
The  wild  winds  swept  sea,  hill,  and  vale,  while  great 
angry  waves  dashed  themselves  in  fury  on  the  shore. 

IT  WAS  AN  APPALLING  STORM  ! 

As  I  peered  out  of  my  tent  into  the  blackness  of  the 
night  I  saw  a  great  lighthouse  lifting  its  golden  bea- 
con far  into  the  clouds.  All  night  long  the  storm 
raged.  All  night  long  that  flaming  signal  was  exalted 
far  into  the  clouds! 

But  soon  the  morning  dawned.  That  wild,  tumult- 
uous sea  had  now  become  an  imperial  highway  of  royal 
purple,  flecked  by  golden  flashlights  sparkling  in  the 
pathway  of  the  sun.  Flocks  fed  in  the  valleys  and 
along  peaceful  streams,  while  the  flowers  of  the  fields 
lifted  their  heads,  still  glistening  with  the  tear-drops 
of  the  night,  that  they  might  be  kissed  by  the  lips  of 
the  rising  sun. 

A  great  fleet  of  vessels  was  moored  under  the  shelter 
of  yonder  reef,  having  found  its  way  into  port  by  fol- 
lowing the  light  through  the  stream.  Their  anchors 
were  cast,  their  sails  were  furled,  the  waves  had  ceased 
from  troubling  and  the  sailors  were  at  rest. 

62 


A    VISION  BY    THE   SEA.  63 

No  need  of  the  liglithouse  now,  for  the  sun  had  be- 
come the  hght  thereof,  and  the  waves  had  ceased  their 
troLibhng  and  the  sailors  were  at  rest! 

Oh,  Beulah  Land,  sweet  Beulah  Land!  Oh,  Para- 
dise, sweet  Paradise !  Oh,  Golden  City,  sweet  Golden 
City !  May  we  hold  aloft  the  glorious  light  of  the  Gos- 
pel of  Jesus  Christ  above  the  raging  seas  of  time ;  that 
the  storm-tossed  mariners  may  find  their  way  by  its 
rays  into  the  port  of  peace,  where  "  the  Lamb  is  the 
light  thereof "  and  "  the  wicked  shall  cease  from 
troubling  and  the  weary  shall  be  at  rest !  " 

Oh,  Golden  Day!  Speed  thou  thy  glorious  com- 
ing! 


Hi'Vi'ii'i"^"  TfiPolotliCJl  Spmmary-Speer  Libi 


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